Referee’s Committee admit internally that four teams were damaged by decisions last season – report

There was no shortage of complaints about the officiating in Spain last season, which is par for the course, but a number of sides claimed they had been given the short straw from the officials over the course of the campaign. Internally, the Technical Referee’s Committee (CTA) have admitted that four of them have reason to feel aggrieved.

Neither Barcelona nor Real Madrid were amongst those four that the CTA felt were negatively affected, despite both of them crying conspiracy at various points throughout the season. As per Relevo, Real Betis and the three sides relegated this season, Granada, Cadiz and Almeria, were all hard-done by during the final weeks of the season.

The CTA regularly meet to review decisions, but this time it was only the heads of the committee, including Carlos Clos Gomez, who is in charge of VAR, the main referees and not the assistants. This meeting in particular focused on errors in the judgement of offsides.

Despite assurances from Clos Gomez that the public can be absolutely calm about the use of offside and VAR, more than ten referees have complained about the tools used to draw lines, claiming it is too imprecise. In particular, five decisions were reviews. During the meeting, five decisions were looked at in detail, with four of them detailed below.

In Matchday 31, Mikel Oyarzabal had a goal given for Real Sociedad against Almeria despite being offside – no line was drawn from the furthest part of his body forward, which was his knee. The match finished 2-2.

In Matchday 32, Artem Dovbyk was given a goal against Cadiz with VAR again incorrectly drawing a line from his knee not his shoulder in this case, with Girona running out 4-1 winners.

On the same weekend, Athletic Club were given a Gorka Guruzeta goal in a 1-1 draw against Granada, when he should have been found offside earlier in the move. Almeria were again involved when Real Betis ran out 3-2 winners in Matchday 35. Luka Romero scored, but that too should have been ruled out, Romero’s hand was confused with Juan Miranda’s knee when drawing the lines. He should have been given offside.

While it has not been officially confirmed, there have been reports that FIFA’s semi-automated offside will come into place next season, which first debuted at the 2022 World Cup.